A hybrid method for MT-InSAR phase unwrapping for deformation monitoring in urban areas

The accuracy of phase unwrapping in multi-temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (MT-InSAR) technology affect closely on the accuracy of ground deformation monitoring. In the urban area, urban in-frastructures such as high-rise buildings present additional challenges to phase unwrapping due to the sudden elevation changes. The failure rate of phase unwrapping is often much higher in such areas, bringing more biases to the estimated deformation and height values. We propose a new method for MT-InSAR phase unwrapping especially for deformation monitoring in urban areas. The method isolates the propagation path of information by considering the building height information of a study area. Two quality controllers are also developed to refine the arc observation network structure for network adjustment and to correct the phase unwrapping errors. The proposed method is tested using both simulated and real datasets. The results show that the building height and the geolocation of the coherence points were estimated much more accurately, demonstrating the effec-tiveness of the proposed method in monitoring deformation of urban area.

Automated summary

This study proposes a new method for MT-InSAR phase unwrapping, specifically designed for deformation monitoring in urban areas. The method isolates the propagation path of information by considering building height information and uses quality controllers for network adjustment and phase unwrapping error correction. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in urban deformation monitoring.